Author Topic: The Weather Station Thread (Read 39254 times)

Wowbagger · « **Reply #200 on:** 18 October, 2014, 05:51:53 pm »

I have just submitted our records to the Climatological Observers' Link. Whereas there have been reports of this year's September being the driest on record, for us it was the wettest, with 50mm rain falling in about an hour between 8 and 9 pm on 19th. The total rainfall I recorded was 54mm, so without that storm it would have been the driest. We have only been keeping records since December 2010.

Surprisingly, it was not the warmest: the mean temperature was 16.3°C, compared to 16.7°C in September 2011.

hellymedic · « **Reply #201 on:** 05 December, 2014, 06:40:11 pm »

Local rag ran this http://nw3weather.co.uk/news.php#post-20141116 story about our Hampstead chap. He's 23, which makes me feel very old...

Wowbagger · « **Reply #202 on:** 06 December, 2014, 09:06:18 am »

Minimum temperature of 0.6 deg C at 8.05 am. I have recorded just two frosts this year.

numbnuts · « **Reply #203 on:** 06 December, 2014, 09:20:58 am »

Here in Southampton we have -1.5 at 9.20

hellymedic · « **Reply #204 on:** 06 December, 2014, 12:44:05 pm »

Our Edgware outhouses are consistently colder than the Hampstead weather station.
David's observatory padlocks have frozen twice overnight.
Observatory temperature was -1.2C at 01.30.

rafletcher · « **Reply #205 on:** 06 December, 2014, 03:33:50 pm »

Our frost was quite severe today. -3c in the greenhouse last night. Hoar frost still on the road at 10:00, and I had quite a job scraping the windscreen at 11:00. Some shaded areas haven't thawed all day..

Wowbagger · « **Reply #206 on:** 04 July, 2015, 03:22:35 pm »

We have had technical problems with our Sheeva (sp?) plug and today Dez has replaced it with a raspberry pi. Everything seems to be up and running nicely.

http://tickfield.thewalkers.org.uk/weather/

Wowbagger · « **Reply #207 on:** 21 December, 2015, 11:47:47 am »

One day before the fifth anniversary of us taking delivery of the weather station, we have replaced the 123A lithium battery which provides power when the solar-powered capacitor can't cope. That's not bad considering, IIRC, the blurb suggested replacing the battery every two years. It was only the day before yesterday that the device complained with a low battery warning.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #208 on:** 02 January, 2016, 05:50:17 pm »

Some end of year stats:-

MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for DEC 2015 NAME: Tickfield House CITY: Southend-on-Sea STATE: Essex ELEV: 20.1 m LAT: 51.5 N LONG: 0.7 E TEMPERATURE (C), RAIN (mm), WIND SPEED (kph) HEAT COOL AVG MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 10.6 14.4 13:30 8.6 02:17 12.2 0.0 1.6 3.5 30.6 11:00 SW 02 11.8 12.7 13:00 11.3 02:30 11.4 0.0 0.0 6.3 30.6 15:30 SW 03 11.7 12.3 23:30 11.2 16:00 11.9 0.0 0.4 6.7 33.8 20:00 SSW 04 10.1 12.8 00:30 6.7 06:30 15.5 0.0 1.8 8.8 37.0 21:30 WSW 05 11.7 12.3 22:30 11.3 08:00 11.7 0.0 0.0 13.8 48.3 12:00 WSW 06 12.7 14.2 11:30 12.2 00:00 9.2 0.0 0.2 9.8 49.9 00:30 WSW 07 12.2 13.6 10:00 11.1 18:00 10.8 0.0 0.0 4.0 24.1 20:30 S 08 11.2 13.3 12:30 7.6 23:30 14.2 0.0 2.4 6.1 25.7 13:30 SW 09 10.5 11.9 14:06 5.1 07:00 17.7 0.0 0.0 7.7 33.8 20:00 SW 10 10.9 11.6 11:15 9.9 23:19 13.6 0.0 3.4 8.1 33.8 08:30 SW 11 9.3 10.7 12:45 5.9 23:59 18.0 0.0 0.6 6.0 33.8 13:07 WSW 12 9.7 12.9 21:12 5.8 00:10 16.2 0.0 0.2 8.1 43.5 17:00 WSW 13 8.1 12.7 00:15 6.3 05:15 15.9 0.0 2.2 1.9 25.7 00:00 ESE 14 8.6 9.5 13:30 7.8 06:30 17.5 0.0 2.0 3.0 19.3 05:51 SSE 15 10.5 12.4 23:58 8.9 00:13 13.8 0.0 3.6 3.1 16.1 15:00 SSE 16 13.2 15.1 13:37 12.2 07:36 8.5 0.0 0.8 6.3 30.6 13:00 SW 17 12.9 14.4 14:10 10.9 23:59 10.2 0.0 0.4 5.1 24.1 07:00 SW 18 11.9 13.8 12:38 10.2 02:42 11.4 0.0 0.0 4.5 24.1 22:30 SW 19 13.9 16.4 12:36 12.5 00:20 7.0 0.0 0.0 6.6 29.0 12:00 SSW 20 12.2 13.6 00:39 9.7 23:37 12.0 0.0 0.4 6.9 29.0 05:30 SW 21 10.1 12.3 17:59 8.1 08:29 14.7 0.0 1.6 8.2 38.6 12:30 SW 22 13.5 14.9 14:29 10.9 00:00 9.7 0.0 1.0 12.8 48.3 06:30 SW 23 10.6 12.2 13:47 9.5 08:47 13.5 0.0 0.2 7.9 33.8 07:30 SW 24 10.2 13.3 10:57 6.9 20:28 14.8 0.0 1.2 8.5 40.2 09:00 SW 25 10.6 14.4 20:40 7.0 03:03 13.8 0.0 0.2 7.2 37.0 20:30 SW 26 14.0 14.7 01:17 13.1 20:03 8.0 0.0 0.0 10.3 38.6 01:00 SW 27 13.4 14.0 14:28 11.7 23:51 9.9 0.0 0.0 8.0 33.8 02:00 SW 28 11.0 13.0 10:26 8.8 08:40 13.3 0.0 0.0 4.7 22.5 17:30 SSE 29 11.1 12.6 01:11 9.6 20:48 13.1 0.0 0.0 5.2 29.0 22:38 S 30 11.6 12.7 12:41 9.9 22:12 12.6 0.0 2.8 10.9 46.7 13:30 SSE 31 9.1 11.5 13:25 6.1 23:54 17.2 0.0 3.4 8.7 40.2 06:00 SW --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.3 16.4 19 5.1 9 399.1 0.0 30.4 7.1 49.9 6 SW Max >= 32.2: 0 Max <= 0.0: 0 Min <= 0.0: 0 Min <= -17.8: 0 Max Rain : 3.6 mm ON 12/15/2015 Days of Rain: 17 (> 0.254 mm) 4 (> 2.54 mm) 0 (> 25.4 mm)

December records over the past 5 years:-
HEAT COOL AVG MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM YEAR TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR 2011 7.2 13.4 22 -0.5 19 626.0 0.0 52.0 7.7 53.1 8 WSW 2012 6.0 12.8 23 -4.3 12 683.0 0.0 65.4 5.6 43.5 24 WSW 2013 7.4 12.1 16 -0.2 11 607.0 0.0 53.4 5.8 59.5 24 SW 2014 6.5 13.7 18 -0.1 30 643.0 0.0 32.2 6.3 48.3 10 WSW 2015 11.3 16.4 19 5.1 9 399.1 0.0 30.4 7.1 49.9 6 SW

2015 year summary:-

ANNUAL CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for 2015 NAME: Tickfield House CITY: Southend-on-Sea STATE: Essex ELEV: 20.1 m LAT: 51.5 N LONG: 0.7 E TEMPERATURE (C), RAIN (mm), WIND SPEED (kph) DEP. HEAT COOL MEAN MEAN FROM DEG DEG MAX MAX MIN MIN YR MO MAX MIN MEAN NORM DAYS DAYS HI DATE LOW DATE >=32.2 <=0 <=0 <=-17.8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 01 8.5 2.7 5.7 -0.3 712.4 0.0 15.1 9 -2.7 20 0 0 6 0 2015 02 8.2 2.5 5.1 -0.6 652.9 0.0 11.7 25 -1.4 2 0 0 3 0 2015 03 11.7 4.5 7.8 0.4 571.7 0.0 16.8 8 1.3 25 0 0 0 0 2015 04 15.3 5.8 10.2 -0.4 419.2 0.0 26.8 15 2.7 7 0 0 0 0 2015 05 18.1 9.1 13.2 -0.2 266.9 0.6 24.4 11 4.1 2 0 0 0 0 2015 06 21.3 11.9 16.4 0.4 116.8 24.5 27.9 26 7.1 9 0 0 0 0 2015 07 23.6 14.5 18.7 0.4 37.3 77.4 31.5 1 9.1 31 0 0 0 0 2015 08 22.7 14.5 18.2 0.0 35.2 50.8 28.6 22 10.8 17 0 0 0 0 2015 09 18.5 10.5 14.2 -1.3 205.2 0.0 22.6 20 6.8 26 0 0 0 0 2015 10 15.3 9.4 12.2 -0.9 332.6 0.0 19.1 6 5.1 25 0 0 0 0 2015 11 13.3 8.5 10.9 1.4 401.5 0.0 17.5 7 -1.1 22 0 0 2 0 2015 12 13.1 9.3 11.3 3.8 399.1 0.0 16.4 19 5.1 9 0 0 0 0 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15.8 8.6 12.0 0.2 4150.9 153.3 31.5 JUL -2.7 JAN 0 0 11 0 PRECIPITATION (mm) DEP. MAX ---DAYS OF RAIN--- FROM OBS. OVER YR MO TOTAL NORM DAY DATE 0.254 2.54 25.4 --------------------------------------------------------- 2015 01 54.4 12.4 15.4 3 16 6 0 2015 02 25.2 -7.7 4.6 16 13 3 0 2015 03 21.4 2.1 3.6 15 9 4 0 2015 04 15.6 -17.1 5.2 26 7 2 0 2015 05 46.6 6.5 12.2 14 11 7 0 2015 06 20.4 -27.4 11.8 5 6 2 0 2015 07 36.4 -21.9 11.6 24 12 6 0 2015 08 50.8 -4.2 16.0 24 11 6 0 2015 09 43.0 6.9 12.0 16 12 5 0 2015 10 22.2 -28.3 7.4 28 10 2 0 2015 11 42.8 -5.7 5.6 5 16 7 0 2015 12 30.4 -9.3 3.6 15 17 4 0 --------------------------------------------------------- 409.2 -93.7 16.0 AUG 140 54 0 WIND SPEED (kph) DOM YR MO AVG HI DATE DIR ---------------------------------- 2015 01 6.3 59.5 9 WSW 2015 02 4.8 45.1 1 W 2015 03 6.1 61.2 31 WSW 2015 04 5.2 41.8 1 ENE 2015 05 5.8 53.1 5 WSW 2015 06 5.1 51.5 2 WSW 2015 07 4.7 37.0 27 WSW 2015 08 3.7 37.0 26 SW 2015 09 3.4 37.0 30 WSW 2015 10 2.6 35.4 14 NE 2015 11 6.5 57.9 17 WSW 2015 12 7.1 49.9 6 SW ---------------------------------- 5.1 61.2 MAR WSW

jamesld8 · « **Reply #209 on:** 03 January, 2016, 07:06:10 am »

Great detailed set reports Wow

You don`t get much rain do you ! my rough rainfall gauge (ie just a gardeners raingauge funnel) readings @ LD8 Welsh Marches area elev 220m asl had us on 226mm rain in December

~~and already at 20mm for January~~

that`s now (12 noon) shot up to 35mm after this mornings deluge, roads totally awash masses water running off fields, road back home a 100m , 20 cm deep lake (and that's just runoff water no river flooding)

But cf 2010 December here was approx. 10c average higher, and Boxing Day 25c less cold than equiv on 2010.

Amazing variation across the years

Wowbagger · « **Reply #210 on:** 04 January, 2016, 12:37:28 pm »

I think my rain gauge under-reports. When we had that terribly wet December a year or two ago I couldn't work out why it was recording so low, and on inspection there was a twig stuck in the rocking mechanism. Even when it's working properly (which so far as I know has been all of 2015) I think it reads about 20% below the level of the proper rain gauge I have in the garden a few metres away. This could be as a result of the positioning. The weather station is on the roof of a first-floor extension and probably receives some protection from a yew tree in next door's garden. Having said that, Southend is probably, year-on-year, the driest large town in the UK. Great Wakering, about 5 miles away, has been in some 30 year periods, the driest place in the UK that provides data to the official records.

Of course, we do get some very wet days. I present for your delectation September 2014.

MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for SEP 2014 NAME: Tickfield House CITY: Southend-on-Sea STATE: Essex ELEV: 20.1 m LAT: 51.5 N LONG: 0.7 E TEMPERATURE (C), RAIN (mm), WIND SPEED (kph) HEAT COOL AVG MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 16.7 21.1 12:08 13.2 05:09 2.1 0.0 0.0 2.5 19.3 12:00 WSW 02 16.3 19.4 14:03 13.6 06:19 3.3 0.0 0.0 3.2 17.7 15:00 NE 03 16.8 21.4 15:06 13.0 03:46 2.0 0.0 0.2 4.3 25.7 16:30 ENE 04 17.1 21.5 13:10 13.3 05:46 1.7 0.0 0.2 2.9 17.7 10:00 NE 05 17.3 21.2 16:31 15.2 00:10 0.3 0.0 0.0 1.1 16.1 15:00 NNE 06 17.2 21.2 14:13 13.7 03:53 1.7 0.0 0.0 0.5 11.3 13:30 NNW 07 16.5 22.8 15:53 12.5 05:21 1.2 0.0 0.0 1.4 16.1 20:30 NNE 08 15.7 21.7 12:25 10.3 06:25 4.2 0.0 0.0 1.3 16.1 13:00 E 09 15.2 19.6 14:33 10.8 06:41 5.7 0.0 0.0 2.1 17.7 12:30 ENE 10 14.6 19.9 14:32 10.3 06:45 5.8 0.0 0.0 3.6 24.1 11:00 ENE 11 15.6 20.7 15:20 10.9 00:44 4.5 0.0 0.0 3.9 24.1 17:00 NNE 12 16.0 20.5 15:31 12.0 06:39 3.8 0.0 0.0 3.9 22.5 14:30 NE 13 15.8 20.3 14:16 12.6 03:51 3.4 0.0 0.0 5.1 30.6 17:00 NE 14 16.0 19.7 15:15 12.6 01:39 3.9 0.0 0.2 6.2 29.0 14:30 NE 15 15.7 21.2 14:06 11.4 06:23 3.6 0.0 0.2 1.8 16.1 14:00 NE 16 17.8 22.3 14:23 14.0 00:00 0.3 0.0 0.0 4.1 19.3 21:30 NE 17 17.3 20.4 14:12 15.1 23:56 1.1 0.0 0.0 4.9 20.9 14:00 NE 18 18.4 23.1 13:53 14.6 01:43 0.0 0.9 0.0 4.6 20.9 16:00 NE 19 18.3 22.8 15:59 15.1 21:52 0.0 1.1 32.4 2.6 16.1 21:00 NE 20 17.2 19.8 12:48 15.3 22:42 1.4 0.0 0.2 2.1 17.7 17:30 NE 21 14.7 18.4 13:55 11.6 23:30 6.0 0.0 0.0 4.3 29.0 04:30 NNE 22 13.4 20.0 16:15 8.3 07:08 7.5 0.0 0.0 1.0 14.5 11:30 N 23 14.7 20.4 14:05 10.2 05:50 5.5 0.0 0.0 2.5 19.3 13:30 WSW 24 14.8 19.8 14:28 11.6 23:58 4.8 0.0 0.8 4.2 25.7 13:30 W 25 14.5 20.8 14:52 8.8 06:42 6.3 0.0 0.0 4.5 24.1 13:30 WSW 26 17.6 21.9 16:37 14.8 21:54 0.0 0.1 0.0 3.8 20.9 00:00 WSW 27 16.6 19.8 12:24 11.9 06:40 4.5 0.0 0.0 0.3 11.3 15:00 WNW 28 17.7 22.4 14:13 15.2 23:13 0.0 0.8 0.0 1.6 17.7 14:00 SE 29 15.8 18.2 14:59 13.4 07:11 4.6 0.0 0.6 0.5 14.5 18:00 SSW 30 17.3 22.9 15:34 13.9 01:17 0.0 0.2 0.0 3.7 17.7 01:30 WSW --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16.3 23.1 18 8.3 22 89.1 3.0 34.8 3.0 30.6 13 NE Max >= 32.2: 0 Max <= 0.0: 0 Min <= 0.0: 0 Min <= -17.8: 0 Max Rain : 32.4 mm ON 09/19/2014 Days of Rain: 3 (> 0.254 mm) 1 (> 2.54 mm) 1 (> 25.4 mm)

Almost all the rain on 19th September fell in about an hour. A pal who keeps records about 4 miles away had virtually none. Two separate storms in different parts of Essex during the same weekend dumped similar amounts on Ramsden Heath and Witham respectively.

jamesld8 · « **Reply #211 on:** 08 January, 2016, 01:35:14 pm »

But it was warm rain on 19th

I used to have an Oregon automatic rain gauge (ie the tipping bucket type I think you refer to) but also found it tended to not be very accurate, sometimes it seemed to stick or the trigger not `fire` .

Wowbagger · « **Reply #212 on:** 01 October, 2016, 05:24:43 pm »

That was a very warm September.

MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for SEP 2016 NAME: Tickfield House CITY: Southend-on-Sea STATE: Essex ELEV: 20.1 m LAT: 51.5 N LONG: 0.7 E TEMPERATURE (C), RAIN (mm), WIND SPEED (kph) HEAT COOL AVG MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 19.4 26.1 16:33 14.2 06:19 0.0 3.3 0.0 2.6 17.7 12:30 WSW 02 17.9 22.2 14:18 15.1 05:36 0.0 0.6 0.0 4.9 22.5 09:00 SW 03 17.8 22.8 13:18 14.2 06:32 0.0 0.3 3.8 4.6 27.4 17:00 WSW 04 18.8 20.8 16:35 16.5 07:01 0.0 0.6 0.0 6.2 32.2 07:30 WSW 05 17.9 20.9 15:44 14.8 07:25 0.9 0.0 1.6 1.0 14.5 02:00 SSW 06 21.9 26.4 12:07 19.8 01:52 0.0 8.6 0.0 0.8 12.9 09:30 SW 07 21.8 26.9 13:43 19.4 06:06 0.0 8.7 0.0 1.4 17.7 17:36 SE 08 20.7 26.2 14:45 16.1 23:56 0.0 5.1 0.0 4.5 33.8 14:00 SW 09 19.2 24.1 15:58 15.3 01:33 0.0 2.4 0.0 4.4 24.1 13:00 SSW 10 19.2 21.9 14:08 17.1 23:50 0.0 2.2 0.0 3.5 29.0 16:00 SSW 11 16.9 21.8 13:52 11.4 06:53 3.2 0.0 0.0 1.2 19.3 18:30 SW 12 21.5 29.2 16:05 15.9 04:55 0.0 7.6 0.0 1.0 14.5 12:00 S 13 23.2 29.9 13:33 17.4 07:05 0.0 9.6 0.0 2.0 19.3 16:30 ENE 14 22.9 28.4 15:19 18.7 06:28 0.0 9.4 0.0 1.1 17.7 13:30 SSW 15 21.4 27.1 13:27 17.5 06:34 0.0 7.1 0.0 2.3 27.4 13:30 NNE 16 16.5 19.1 00:00 14.2 16:20 3.0 0.0 8.4 3.1 25.7 12:00 W 17 15.5 17.6 16:54 13.5 07:44 5.0 0.0 0.2 5.5 30.6 19:30 N 18 17.2 21.1 16:44 14.4 23:31 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.1 14.5 00:00 N 19 17.2 21.3 14:03 12.9 02:42 2.2 0.0 0.0 0.3 11.3 22:30 NNW 20 16.5 19.6 16:27 14.8 07:05 2.1 0.0 0.0 0.4 12.9 09:30 NNE 21 17.5 22.4 15:29 13.8 06:51 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.8 14.5 15:00 ESE 22 17.7 23.3 13:17 14.9 23:59 0.0 1.4 0.0 2.2 17.7 09:20 SW 23 15.8 22.4 14:58 10.8 06:54 3.1 0.0 0.0 1.6 16.1 17:00 SW 24 18.5 23.8 14:49 13.4 01:48 0.0 0.5 0.0 2.9 22.5 13:30 S 25 18.0 21.8 15:26 13.6 23:30 1.2 0.0 0.0 5.3 33.8 14:00 SW 26 15.2 19.4 14:42 11.3 05:27 5.3 0.0 0.2 1.2 19.3 15:00 SSW 27 17.2 20.3 12:49 14.6 03:54 1.6 0.0 0.0 2.9 24.1 13:00 SSW 28 18.1 24.1 13:42 13.4 06:59 0.0 0.8 0.0 5.7 29.0 20:47 WSW 29 17.5 20.8 15:37 13.7 23:54 1.9 0.0 0.2 7.0 30.6 00:00 WSW 30 15.1 20.9 14:34 12.0 08:00 3.4 0.0 0.0 4.0 24.1 11:00 WSW --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18.5 29.9 13 10.8 23 34.3 68.0 14.4 2.8 33.8 8 SW Max >= 32.2: 0 Max <= 0.0: 0 Min <= 0.0: 0 Min <= -17.8: 0 Max Rain : 8.4 mm ON 09/16/2016 Days of Rain: 3 (> 0.254 mm) 2 (> 2.54 mm) 0 (> 25.4 mm)

For comparison to the last 5:

HEAT COOL AVG MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM YEAR DAY TEMP HIGH DATE LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH DATE DIR ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2011 16.7 28.5 30 8.6 18 82.6 26.2 17.3 5.1 45.1 12 SW 2012 15.2 29.4 9 6.3 22 165.7 23.4 46.3 4.4 41.8 24 WSW 2013 15.2 29.0 5 8.3 15 162.7 17.8 39.2 3.7 38.6 16 WSW 2014 16.3 23.1 18 8.3 22 89.1 3.0 34.8 3.0 30.6 13 NE 2015 14.2 22.6 20 6.8 26 205.2 0.0 43.0 3.4 37.0 30 WSW 2016 18.5 29.9 13 10.8 23 34.3 68.0 14.4 2.8 33.8 8 SW

Wowbagger · « **Reply #213 on:** 16 June, 2020, 06:16:16 pm »

I have rather neglected my weather station of late and, annoyingly, the Raspberry Pi to which the console is connected has somehow corrupted its SD card. Add to that the fact that the console stopped registering wind speed, and Stuff needs to be done.

I decided that the anemometer's reed switch had died a death and the only simple way to fix that was to buy a replacement weather vane component, which I have done, and I went up the ladder yesterday to put everything back in its place. Dez has yet to get round to fixing the website, but hopefully he will be able to do so soon.

Dez tells me that there has been no loss of historical data, but there will obviously be some gaps when he gets it recording online again.

Kim · « **Reply #214 on:** 16 June, 2020, 07:46:14 pm »

Weather enthusiasts may also be interested in community air pollution monitoring: https://sensor.community/en/

I've been operating one in Middle Earth for the last couple of months, and have so far established a lockdown baseline particulate pollution level; observed the effects of different weather conditions on PM10 count; noted the correlation between the operation of woodworking tools, particulate pollution and my asthma; and monitored the neighbours' weed-smoking habits.

The Family Cyclist · « **Reply #215 on:** 18 June, 2020, 12:38:29 pm »

I need a new weather station as my one from maplin which I never had much confidence in took a direct hit from a football from my neighbours kid. Can't tell him off though as my kids had kicked it over first

Just something fairly basic with an indoor reader but must do wind speed and rainfall

Thanks

Wowbagger · « **Reply #216 on:** 18 June, 2020, 09:57:04 pm »

Budget?

I have the Davis Vantage Pro 2 but I was considering going for the Vantage Vue. Looks pretty good.

Mechanical rain gauges, in my experience, are pretty crap, even the expensive one like mine. Last night, my perfectly normal plastic cylinder rain gauge measured 33mm rain*. I think the electronic one was about 25% down on that. The instructions do say that "measuring rainfall mechanically is one of the most problematic aspects of automatic weather stations" and they like to blame the user that sets them up. But I think they just don't work properly. The buckets are inclined to become blocked and the tilting mechanism is subjet to obstructions from intruding species, spiders and their webs being likely culprits.

*My sister, about 200 meters away, also recorded 33mm. My brother, 15 miles to the NW, recorded 36mm, and the official figure from Chelmsford, another 10 miles further north, was 40mm, so we are all in the right ball-park.

The Family Cyclist · « **Reply #217 on:** 19 June, 2020, 03:01:57 pm »

Honestly budget isn't huge as it's more of a curiosity on particularly wet/windy/hot/cold days

Jurek · « **Reply #218 on:** 19 June, 2020, 04:06:41 pm »

Quote from: Johnny Faro on 19 June, 2020, 03:01:57 pm

Honestly budget isn't huge as it's more of a curiosity on particularly wet/windy/hot/cold days

I've just clicked 'Buy now' on this.
My previous one was from Maplin at around half the price.
It wasn't especially good / reliable
This one seems to get good reviews.

ETA - I don't think that you are going to get wind speed without going significantly into three figures.

aidan.f · « **Reply #219 on:** 15 February, 2021, 07:47:24 am »

Hi everyone,

I am rather late to the party here, but am thinking about how to design a environmental monitoring project for my local community allotment /orchard group. There would be a lot of interest in rain soil and air temperatures it's also an exposed site so wind data would be accurate, yes a weather station.

I can see an educational benefit AC as BC we used to have a lot of school/community group visits to the site. (before covid)

There are a few constraints, as its an eco-friendly place I don't expect a sensor tree or Davis type station would be acceptable. There are no nearby mains supplies electrons and the nearest wi-fi is about 150M from my proposed monitoring location, the composting toilet block

Having spent most of this weekend hacking around there is a bewildering number of options none of which seem to quite fit my requirements. I would like to upload near real-time data to the interwebs (inspires interest) and I'm capable of home brew, my hardware is better than my software, need to end up with something reliable and maintainable.

I'm thinking of starting with air and soil temps,

The ecowitt HP3501 almost fits the bill, but I am not sure the 868MHz wireless range will be acceptable for ground sensors if the console is inside the nearest building - how can I be sure, and does anyone have any experience?

Failing that can anyone please suggest a telemetry hub design/product which is low power, I can remove batteries for re-charging or add solar and wind wind charging, flexible and expandable and easy to connect to software to molish it into custom web pages e.g. WEEWX

jiberjaber · « **Reply #220 on:** 15 February, 2021, 11:06:07 pm »

Ultrasonic wind speed / direction might be worth looking into if you are trying to avoid a weather station that looks like a weather station.
I did briefly investigate them when I was looking to replace my sensors but looked a bit too hard to DIY at the time. I note Netatmo do a solar powered sensor version and there are more built sensors around now. There seem to be a lot of Netatmo weather stations popping up and seem fairly accurate and the ones showing odd data I suspect is down to mounting location.

I mentioned MQTT as a comms strategy - WeeWX supports MQTT also if that's of use (it's what I use).

aidan.f · « **Reply #221 on:** 15 February, 2021, 11:26:15 pm »

That's an interesting reply with the tips on mqtt. I will also look more closely at netamo,

jiberjaber · « **Reply #222 on:** 16 February, 2021, 12:22:25 am »

There's a Weewx driver for them but looks like it might have been scuppered by some revision to the firmware.

https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-netatmo

Some more info here too: https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=38259.0

Dedicated ultrasonic wind speed/direction off the shelf seems quite expensive, £600+ odd

https://www.omniinstruments.co.uk/weather-stations-and-instruments/wind-speed-and-direction-sensors/windsonic-solid-state-wind-speed-and-direction-sensor.html

Some DIY options..

https://hackaday.com/2013/08/21/ultrasonic-anemometer-for-an-absurdly-accurate-weather-station/
http://embedded-lab.com/blog/making-an-ultrasonic-anemometer/

I think it would be cheaper to go down the route of traditional wind / speed sensor which I think was the conclusion I came to when I was looking, going for a known Davis instruments hardware as they are robust and UV stable.

Further digging just led me here which might also be of use (looks the same as the ecowit stuff?)
https://www.froggit.de/?cat=c40_DP-Series-dp-series.html

aidan.f · « **Reply #223 on:** 16 February, 2021, 06:17:29 am »

About the wind sensors, aesthetics is not that critical, Ecowitt does seem the best way forward. This discussion has been really helpful as I decided to post you picture..
https://goo.gl/maps/FbT4GwDLef8XNMgH8
And discover that one of the nearby outbuidings has solar panels = mains power and probably also an IP network connection, so I have a good location for the GW1003 gateway From my read through of the manual to use WEEWX I guess the gateway would need a nearby Raspberry Pi connected by USB. Or can i just use an API to Ecowitts servers?
I am sure I will be able to use use the site owners LAN but don't want to be hacking about on it - I just need a plug'n'play solution - more advice please?

You can see the compost toilet building on the western boundary, where it changes angle. It is well exposed although there are some trees which will eventually become a problem. The shadow near it is ironically a utility pole, so aesthetics are not that critical.. I'm sure a 868 MHz link will work fine over that distance although we may have to compromise on location of ground level sensors

Wowbagger · « **Reply #224 on:** 02 January, 2023, 11:48:07 pm »

A bit of a triumph for me over the past few days.

Dez used to be in charge of our weather station stuff but he moved to Notts. almost a year ago. It's been chuntering on to itself quite happily until on 4th December we had a power cut. It lasted 45 minutes, but when it came back on, the Raspberry Pi to which the weather station is connected persistently wrote no more data from 3pm on 4/12/2022. I assumed that it was something on the Raspberry Pi that had been corrupted, but since Dez had set it all up and I didn't have the password, I got a different SD card and started from scratch. Much to my complete surprise, the new SD card also reported data from 3pm on 4/12/2022.

That meant that the corruption was with the weather station itself. There's bit of hardware called the Data Logger and I found out, through joining a forum (!) that this can be corrupted by power cuts. I managed to delete all the data from the data logger (it stores quite a bit) and it started recording data in a sensible kind of way.

Having got the weather station itself sending data to the Raspberry Pi, the next stage was to get it to write a web page locally. After a couple of days of faffing, late this evening it actually worked. I'm feeling rather smug.

It's a bit frustrating to have failed to record the data for the 27 days or so between 4/12/2022 and 31/12/2022, especially since we had some of the coldest weather for a few years in that period. But I'm quite pleased with my (very rudimentary) use of Linux commands to get stuff to work.